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Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader Ouattara is sworn in for a fourth term

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Ivory Coast’s incumbent President Alassane Ouattara was sworn in on Monday for a fourth term after taking over 89% of the vote in an October election marked by low turnout and unrest.

“This vote is a choice for stability, peace, and development,” Ouattara said, after his government excluded main opposition figures from the election. Violence around the vote killed at least 11 people, and over 1,650 people were arrested, according to official figures.

“We are not in the business of telling people how to run their country,” Jacob Helberg, U.S. assistant secretary of state for economic affairs, told The Associated Press a day before the inauguration, adding that “ultimately, we think the Ivory Coast is a politically stable place that is growing quickly.”

Eleven African presidents also attended Monday’s ceremony in the West African nation.

Ouattara first came to power after winning a disputed election in 2010 against his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo. Ouattara oversaw a referendum that changed the constitution in 2016, and in 2020 he said the amended constitution reset his time in office to zero, which his opponents rejected.

Supporters have credited Ouattara with restoring the economy in the world’s largest cocoa producer, while critics have accused him of tightening his grip on power.

How Voodoo overcame suppression and became a democratic force in the West African nation of Benin

OUIDAH, Benin (AP) — Democracy came to the cradle of Voodoo religion in 1991, when Benin’s military dictator of many years surprisingly lost an election that he had organized. Mathieu Kérékou had amassed power partly by banning the practice of so-called sorcerers, whose authority he deemed subversive to his own. Voodooists would have the last laugh. The opposition figure who defeated Kérékou, Nicéphore Soglo, rehabilitated Voodoo, or Vodún as it is known in Benin, as part of national heritage and emphasized the kind of tolerance that Kérékou would try to emulate when he successfully sought reelection in 1996. Two decades and three presidents later, this West African nation is a bastion of democracy in a region dubbed “the coup belt” for the trend since 2020 of military takeovers. President Romuald Wadagni was inaugurated on May 24 to replace Patrice Talon, who stepped down after serving two terms.
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